Wind professionals want to make Plainview the hub for on-site wind

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, November 2, 2009

Curtis King wants Plainview to be at the "front end of the spear" when it comes to on-site wind generation.

Bob Brunson wants the community to be the hub in the Panhandle for those systems.

The two Plainviewans are in a position to have some say in that matter as both recently went to work for Tri Global Energy, LLC, a Dallas-based company with regional offices in Lubbock, Denver and Santa Fe, N.M.

King most recently worked in the trust department at Hale County State Bank and now serves as corporate director for shareholder relations for Tri Global. Brunson has extensive experience in land acquisition and is a licensed real estate broker in Texas and Kansas. He is the company’s director of leasing operations.

Both work out of the Lubbock office, and both are excited about the potential wind energy has for the High Plains. They also are excited about some specific ideas Tri Global has.

On a large scale, the company has a patent-pending business model designed to allow more local participation in wind projects and keep more of the money generated by those projects at home.

On a small scale, the company is working to establish on-site projects that would provide local entities such as municipalities, school districts and industrial parks with their own wind, or solar, energy systems.

King explained that those systems have a number of advantages locally, and he and Brunson both feel that Plainview would be a good place to showcase those advantages because of its location on I-27 between Lubbock and Amarillo.

One of the biggest advantages King sees in on-site wind systems is the relative ease in getting a project established.

For large-scale projects, two of which are on the books for southern Hale County, according to Tri Global President Tim Daniel, the process can take up to five years to get established because of all the studies required and regulations that must be met. At the same time, Daniel said, large-scale projects are heavily dependent on transmission lines.

King pointed out that none of those are a challenge for on-site systems, which are installed in a way that the power goes directly to the project’s host.

"This way we don’t worry about transmission lines. We just tie into their meters," King said, adding that an on-site project can be up in about six months.

King said that the company already has preliminary talks with Plainview city and business leaders about the possibility of installing some on-site systems. At the same time, he continued, Tri Global is working with Xcel Energy on ways to handle supplemental power as it is related to the larger grid.

"We’re excited," King said. "There’s a huge potential."

Willis McCutcheon, president of the Plainview-Hale County Industrial Foundation, also sees potential for wind energy across the area.

"I feel like Plainview and Hale County are strategically located (for wind production)," he said. He also sees a lot of possibilities for ancillary businesses in support of alternative energy development.

Brunson was particularly excited about that part of the puzzle. He has spent the last few years traveling the country helping get land together for projects and has seen what wind energy can do for surrounding communities.

"I’ve been doing this for three years all over, and I’m real excited to see it happening here," he said.

However, Brunson continued, that excitement is tempered by the realization that the county and region need to develop a plan and not just go into alternative energy recklessly.

"I think the next five years is going to be a big opportunity for us, but we’ve got to plan for it," he said.

From the city’s perspective, Mayor John Anderson echoed Brunson’s thoughts on the need for planning.

Anderson said the city certainly needs to investigate all aspects of the issue.

In the meantime, King is enthusiastic.

"We’re kind of on the cutting edge, (the) front end of the spear, on getting that going in the Panhandle," he said.